Meantime this extremely dangerous super storm house -- potential to shut down new York and other big cities up and down the East Coast. Emergency officials are scrambling to make sure preparations are in place in ABC's John -- and has that part of the story from lower Manhattan good morning John. Morning we are here in battery Park City in what's now being called zone a 375000. Residents around the city. Live in these low lying potential flood zones are right behind as you can -- Cool water right now is Kabul when sandy comes through it wouldn't take much for the water to come up over these walls. Now -- for Hurricane Irene these residents had to be evacuated. So this time around they are ready. For the worse. East Coast communities going on the offensive building sand walls securing property. And stocking up on supplies says that super storm closes in. After being counted last year by Hurricane Irene with its record storm surge in feet of flooding. New York residents are once again bracing for the worst damage from Irene topped fourteen billion dollars and sandy could reach even more. Have it certainly having lived through it lost everything in my basement I had to -- up to ten feet of water -- -- announced. This is a concern Governor Cuomo has declared a state of emergency preparation for seeing these impact. And mayor Michael Bloomberg warned New York City residents to brace themselves there's the possibility of parts of our city flooding. Or high winds that could force certain bridges to be closed. Last year in advance of Irene Mayor Bloomberg made the unprecedented order to evacuate low lying areas of the city. Shut down the subway system. -- -- barrels north the city's more than seven million strap hangers awaited decision about another possible shut down. And Mayor Bloomberg says the subway system would shut down at the wind speeds exceed. 39. Miles per hour now he also recommends residents here in the city. Put together eight gopac with all the essentials. Should you need to evacuate at a moment's notice. Potentially a huge crisis for the biggest city in this country -- -- and thank you.

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